Black Forest Cake

Black forest cake is my favorite cake . I remember the very first time i took a bite of this cake , i was only 11 years old , it was a cake that my sister , who happens to be 17 years older than me , made for me and my mom . That time , she made the cake to welcome us in her house . The cake was so yummy and delicious , chocolatey , and has certain thing that i can never figure out . Later i found out this cake was made with alcohol . Well you could make them into the US version , skipping all the soaking in brandy or kirsch , which is alcohol , and made them into a regular chocolate cake , but i can’t guarantee the taste will be the same .

So , fast forward years later , in 2004 , back when i was in Kansas , and just started to have interest in baking and cooking i attempted making my first black forest cake , my husband said it was very good , although the looks , not so much . Couple years later i made another one .. this time , the taste was lacking and although it looked better .. i guess few years in the kitchen gave me some knowledge about cake decorating although at the time , the taste wasn’t as good .

2014 .. Valentine’s week , i decided , it is time for me to make black forest cake , and i was pretty much determined that it is the cake i will be making for my family for Valentine’s . And thinking about my 9 years old son , he obviously can’t eat this cake , so i had planned it that i will put some batter into cupcakes , to make his version a cupcake virgin version . Well .. that never happened .. LOL

But i had everything on hand that day , i started on a day before Valentine’s , i knew this cake would be too much to tackle in just 1 day . I did my prepped for everything else but the cake and the chocolate mousse . Those 2 would be best to be made the next day anyway . I made my cherry filling , with the kirsch , which is a cherry brandy , next time i might try it with marsala wine and cognac . I am not saying it tastes bad with kirsch , it was still good , but i made ice cream with marsala wine and cognac and i loved the flavor , i wonder if it would be really good for this cake too .

I did the sugar syrup at the same day making the cherry filling . The next morning i made the cake , being a sponge cake , it is quite thin so they don’t take long to totally cool off . Once it’s done cooling off , i made the chocolate mousse and the rest is just assembling the cake . I had fun decorating the cake , i used some chocolate writings , and did some chocolate curls . I have to say this time i am pretty happy with how it looks and how it tastes .